The
traditional story of St. Lucy tells us that she was of noble Greek parentage,
born in Syracuse, Sicily, and brought up as a Christian by her mother, Eutychia.
Although Lucy, like Cecilia, wished to dedicate herself to God, Eutychia
arranged for her a marriage with a young pagan. The mother, who suffered from
hemorrhage, was persuaded to make a pilgrimage to Catania, to offer prayers at
the tomb of St. Agatha.

Lucy accompanied her mother, and their prayers for a cure were answered. Then
Lucy made known to Eutychia her desire to give her own share of their fortune to
the poor and devote herself to God's service. Eutychia, in gratitude for her
cure, gave permission. This so angered the young man to whom Lucy had been
unwillingly betrothed that he denounced her as a Christian to the governor,
Paschius. The persecutions instituted by the Emperor Diocletian were then at
their height, and when Lucy steadfastly clung to her faith, she was sentenced to
prostitution in a brothel. God rendered her immovable and the officers were not
able to carry her off to the place of evil. An attempt was then made to burn
her, but boiling oil and pitch had no power to hurt her or break her strong
spirit. At last she was put to death by the sword. At Rome in the sixth century
Lucy was honored among the other virgin martyrs, and her name was inserted in
the Canon of the Mass. A reference to her sanctity occurs in a letter written by
Pope Gregory the Great. In the Middle Ages, she was invoked by persons suffering
from eye trouble, perhaps because Lucy (in Italian, Lucia) derives from
<lux>, the Latin word for light. The first church writer to give an
account of St. Lucy from her <Acts> was the English bishop St. Aldhelm of
Sherborne at the end of the seventh century. This saint's relics are venerated
at Venice and at Bourges, in France. She is patroness of Syracuse; her emblems
are a cord and eyes.

This was taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley
& Co., Inc.